Lena Dunham, who wrote and starred in the American hit series Girls, wrote on Twitter: "Mickey Rooney got all the best babes despite being short as hell. #RIP beautiful man".

An author Anne Rice said: "Seems we've just lost Mickey Rooney at age 93. Not only an actor, but a legend. Sad to think of him gone. But what an amazing life he lived."

The diminutive star married eight times, fathering seven sons and four daughters.

His first marriage was to Ava Gardner, when he was 21 and she was only 19. The marriage lasted only a year, and Rooney then joined the army and spent most of World War II entertaining troops.

It was his last marriage, to singer Janice Darlene Chamberlain, that was the most successful, outlasting the other seven marriages put together.

The actor, pictured in 1955, began performing aged two [CAMERA PRESS]

Rooney bounced back from money problems and career breaks, saying in 1979: "I've been coming back like a rubber ball for years."

He made a series of films with Judy Garland, and said of the actress "We weren't just a team, we were magic."

He also appeared in 1938's Boys Town with Spencer Tracy, and starred alongside Elizabeth Taylor in 1944's National Velvet.

However, when he returned to Hollywood after the war, he discovered that his career had stalled and his savings had been stolen by a manager.

"I began to realise how few friends everyone has," he wrote in his second autobiography. "All those Hollywood friends I had in 1938, 1939, 1940 and 1941, when I was the toast of the world, weren't friends at all."

His movie career never regained its prewar eminence.

The Bold and the Brave, a 1956 World War II drama, brought him an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor.

But he mainly played supporting characters in films such as Off Limits with Bob Hope. In the early 1960s, he also appeared in Breakfast at Tiffany's as Audrey Hepburn's Japanese neighbour.

In 1983, the Motion Picture Academy presented Rooney with an honorary Oscar for his "60 years of versatility in a variety of memorable film performances."

In 2011, Rooney was in the news again when he testified before Congress about abuse of the elderly, alleging that he was left powerless by a family member who took and misused his money.

He told a special Senate committee considering legislation to curb abuses of senior citizens: "I felt trapped, scared, used and frustrated. But above all, when a man feels helpless, it's terrible."

Actress Margaret O'Brien, who recently worked with him on The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, said: "He was undoubtedly the most talented actor that ever lived. There was nothing he couldn't do."